S-STEM: Training for Environmental Stewardship of the US Virgin Islands

维尔京群岛大学(UVI)正在为其海洋与环境科学硕士(MMES)项目中的20名加勒比自然资源保护和管理专业的有学术天赋但经济困难的学生提供培训和财政支持。MMES计划是为了满足该地区对专业培训的明显需求，该地区的自然资源受到严重威胁，其经济生存能力与当地环境状况密切相关。UVI学生和美属维尔京群岛人口主要由在STEM相关领域代表性不足的群体组成。这些群体中的许多人发现，资助达到理科硕士水平的教育是不可能的，因此他们转而从事其他职业。UVI正在帮助满足对加勒比自然资源保护和管理有了解的专业人员的需求，方法是从代表性不足的群体中招收学生，并提供财政支持、学术辅导、教师导师以及参加专业会议的研究和旅行经费。弗吉尼亚大学S-STEM项目的学术价值在于，MMES项目成功地让代表人数不足的群体的学生及早参与与当地相关的研究，并开发了保护加勒比自然资源的新方法。这一项目在领土内外产生了广泛的影响，因为它培训了一批未来的科学家，他们最终将成为维尔京群岛和世界各地类似环境的自然资源的管理者。

The University of the Virgin Islands (UVI) is providing training and financial support for 20 academically talented, but financially challenged students in Caribbean natural resource conservation and management in its Masters of Marine and Environmental Science (MMES) program. The MMES program is responding to a demonstrated need for professional training in this region with serious threats to its natural resources and whose economic viability is closely tied to the state of the local environment. UVI students and the U.S. Virgin Islands population are comprised predominantly of groups underrepresented in STEM related fields. Many individuals in these groups find that financing education to the level of Masters of Science impossible and therefore move into other careers. UVI is helping to fill the need for professionals with understanding of Caribbean natural resource conservation and management by recruiting students from under-represented groups and providing financial support, academic tutoring, faculty mentors, and funding for research and travel to professional meetings. The intellectual merit of UVI's S-STEM project is based in the MMES program's success in involving students from under-represented groups early in locally-relevant research and developing novel approaches to the conservation of the natural resources of the Caribbean. This project has broad impacts within the territory and beyond through its training of a diverse cadre of future scientists who will ultimately be stewards of the natural resources of the Virgin Islands and similar environments around the world.